Artist taps into autumn to create giant 'Mona Leafa' portrait

Thousands of fallen autumn leaves and a leaf blower is all it took to inspire Nathan Wyburn's iconic version of the Mona Lisa painting

A giant outdoor artwork dubbed the "Mona Leafa" was created in West London using a leaf blower and thousands of fallen autumn leaves.

The 15m long natural replica of the famous Mona Lisa painting was created by Nathan Wyburn using clusters of brown, red and purple leaves.

The artist is known for creating iconic celebrity portraits out of Marmite on toast, newspaper cut outs, fake tan and toothpaste.

“Creating this artwork has been a really brilliant challenge for me," Mr Wynburn said. “I’ve had a lot of fun with a piece of equipment that’s really versatile; I used it as a blower as well as a vacuum to blow into place and then clear up the leaves after the project – I’d say this is a case of ‘do try this at home’ if you have leaves in your garden and want to clear them quickly.”

His artwork was created to coincide with a new poll found that clearing up the garden is the most satisfying job around the home in autumn.

It came above throwing away clutter, packing away the summer wardrobe and cleaning out gutters.

A fifth of 2,000 surveyed UK homeowners said they likeed their garden to look better than their neighbours’ and one in 10 compared their aspirations for their outdoor space to creating a work of art.

To achieve this respondents said it will take an average of 8 hours to tidy the garden, with some taking the best part of a working week to complete it.

“We know from our research that more than half of people will be tackling the autumn tidy up in the next month," said Steve Guy, Market Director for Outdoor at B&Q, which commissioned the poll. He added: “We hope our Mona Leafa will encourage people to get started.”

Of those polled, 68 per cent of respondents said they put off starting tasks around the home and almost a third said they were time poor.

Homeowners were especially concerned about having the time to clear up their garden in Wales, the East Midlands and East Anglia.

However, around half of people admitted to raking up leaves or picking them up manually so not having the right equipment could be driving up this time commitment.

SWNS